Saturday, February 23, 2008

Joy Simpson is in Natal! It's been great to have Joy over from the UK. Her and Rachel and Rachel's brother and girlfriend have popped out for dinner leaving me to keep an eye on the sleeping boy. Joy did a great service by bringing curry packs, a music magazine, a broadsheet newspaper and a Cadbury's chocolate bar over for me... it doesn't get any better than that.

Mum is in Africa! Mum returned to Chad on Friday and should be in Cameroon with Dad right now. After the various necessary meetings I hope they get a proper break - Dad especially needs one.

Eduardo is in hospital! Not a good day to be an Arsenal supporter, drawing a game that should've been won and losing one of our best strikers to a horrific injury that will keep him out for 6 months to a year. The Brazilian press have picked up the story of Eduardo and his decimated ankle with rigour, claiming him to be one of their own, raised on the streets of Rio as a boy, and suffering a terrible blow today that affects us all here in Brazil. It's strange that the press have suddenly had collective amensia - often forgetting to remind their readers that Eduardo moved to Croatia at the age of 16 and is a naturalised Croat.

This blog entry here by a columnist for globo website says that if Eduardo repented of his Croatian nationality he would (and should) be called up to the Brazilian national team in a flash! I've just been reading some of the comments that follow the article by average Jo Brazilian. Some "commentarios" I wouldn't dare translate on account of not having a big enough swearing dictionary handy, but the gist of most messages is that Martin Taylor is a criminal and should be sent to prison and be banned from football and that serious questions need to be asked about the legitamacy of his genetic heritage.

The picture in that article shows Martin Taylor about to connect with the side of Eduardo's shin, just a fraction of a second before the compound break. If you're squeamish I don't recommend flicking around the links on the globo pages - these guys are not coy (like the British TV coverage which refused to show a replay of the incident) and have happily plastered graphic images of Eduardo's severe injury and contorted face across their national news website (for example here).

So for today, Eduardo is a Brazilian and we mourn with him. Get well soon Dudu!

3 comments:

magicroundabout said...

Yeah man, you're ankle's just not supposed to do that! Ouch!

Match of the Day DID show two replays of it, but it came with a warning beforehand and little Gary Linekar looked quite sheepish about the whole thing.

Though the injury was obviously very nasty, the tackle didn't - to my untrained eye - look like it was deliberately horrific. More like an clumsy swipe that, unluckily, went badly wrong. I've seen two-footed lunges at the shin and this wasn't one of them.

Could we possibly have Maclurio's slightly more educated view on the nature of said tackle?

Ross

Maclurio said...

Yes, I don't think Taylor meant to do any damage, at least not that much. It's true that defenders often try to welcome the guy they are marking with a "crunch" at the start of the game but 99% of the time with a tackle like that Eduardo would have skipped it or been slightly bruised - it just caught him right on the money and his foot didn't move away. By the literal rules of the game it was a red card for showing studs - Henry was sent off for less in the 2002 World Cup.

magicroundabout said...

See...I just feel STUPID now for not knowing that about Henry! ;-)

Good answer though! I'm sure we'll all wish him a speedy recovery. It's pants when you're not able to do the things you love doing.